Shakespeare. Seriously. Under 90 bucks and free shipping for 38 little hardback books with ribbon markers. The books are solid and workman-like, not frilly, and they have good introductions, good notes, and are such an incredible bargain ($2.36 a book!) that I don’t understand why everyone hasn’t ordered them. Especially if you have smallish kids, […]
Author Archive | weeklyrob
Two Nifties
Nifty number 1: The Sony Reader. I actually posted something about this a while back, but now I have one in my hot little hands. It’s really great at what it does. That is, it replaces the many pounds of cloth and glue and paper that you’d need to carry around in order to have […]
Maggots and More
Just finished reading Death’s Acre, all about the “Body Farm,” (which is the world’s only facility dedicated to understanding how human bodies decompose), and how the information gleaned from that facility has helped to solve crimes. It’s written by the founder of the body farm, Bill Bass, and a journalist co-writer. If you can handle […]
FCC You!
I’ve posted earlier about whether words like “fuck” should be allowed on TV. I won’t repost that one, but I will note that the Second Circuit seems to be reading weeklyrob, because they ruled as I would against the FCC. Meanwhile, The Week magazine has just violated my two strike rule, and I’ll be canceling […]
A Secret
Being in the middle of a good book is like having a secret. I occasionally look up from it, notice the people around me, and realize that they’re not happily lost in this other world the way that I am. Especially if the book isn’t a popular one. I’m sure that I’d feel this way […]
Blent
I’m reading Middlemarch, by Ms. George Eliot. I say “Ms.” to avoid the bad sit-com conversation about “George” being a man. You know what I mean: A: “Do you enjoy the works of George Eliot?” B: “Oh yeah, I read his stuff all the time. Can’t get enough.” A: “But. But. But, George Eliot was […]
Battle of the Century
My friend Stan points me to this slick little video about an animator’s battle against his own drawing.
Killers
My last post was about how we rearrange atoms to make what we want. But that reminded me about a frequent thought I have about how we’re all killers. Here’s how I look at it: The sun is a burning mass radiating energy. That energy comes to the rock known as earth. Some arrangements of […]
Atoms
Just generally musing about how humans haven’t actually added any atoms to the planet. All the plastic, all the emissions, all the disposable diapers, all the steel, the wreckage, the garbage, the skyscrapers, the concrete, glass, photo paper, book bindings, vinyl, paint, light bulb filaments, are made of stuff that was already here. And also […]
The Opposite of Right
Is left. Or wrong. Does that mean that left = wrong? My wife received a call on the way home from a party, then told me about it: “He asked whether I’d left the party, because he’d left his scarf. I said I’d find out if anyone was left there.” Left = “departed,” then “didn’t […]